Richard Rumelt - Business Quotes

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Then, in 1998, I had the chance to talk with Steve Jobs after he'd come back and turned Apple around. I was there to help Telecom Italia try to do a deal with Apple, but after that business was completed I couldn't help asking a question. Steve, I said, this turnaround at Apple has been impressive. But everything we know about the personal-computer business says that Apple will always have a small niche position. The network externalities are just too strong to upset the de facto Wintel standard. So what are you trying to do? What's the longer-term strategy?

Richard Rumelt
I consider myself a mainstream researcher in the field of business policy, and the ideas I want to describe in this paper concern the foundations of a theory of business strategy that is rooted in economics. But is such a paper, whatever its merits, really appropriate at a conference entitled 'Non-traditional Approaches to Policy Research'? Surprisingly, it is. The use of economic theory to model and explicate business strategy, as it is understood within the field of business policy, is distinctly non-traditional.

Richard Rumelt
[ Diversification strategy is] a firm's commitment to diversity per se, together with the strengths, skills or purposes that span this diversity, shown by the way in which business activities are related one to another.

Richard Rumelt
Some of the biggest changes have been in the process of generating business strategies—what I call strategy work. Around 1980, the received wisdom was to decentralize into business units, which would each generate a strategic plan. These plans were then amalgamated up the hierarchy, in some portfolio way, for senior management. That approach has all but disappeared, and we've seen a dramatic recentralization of strategy work.

Richard Rumelt